


All Begins and Ends in a Drink

by SheWhoWillRise



Series: Ant Fam/Iron Fam fics [1]
Category: Ant-Man (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Alcoholic Tony Stark, Alternate Universe - No Powers, F/M, M/M, tony's working on it
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-18
Updated: 2019-09-18
Packaged: 2020-11-02 08:31:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,204
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20684786
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SheWhoWillRise/pseuds/SheWhoWillRise
Summary: Tony and Scott meet at the hospital for two completely different things.They say goodbye at the hospital for the same damn reason.





	All Begins and Ends in a Drink

**Author's Note:**

  * For [natashalieromanov](https://archiveofourown.org/users/natashalieromanov/gifts).

> I teased my beautiful girlfriend about this story sksk. I'm hoping to be done with Chapter Two by tomorrow.
> 
> I'm following original MCU canon of Howard dying when Tony is 17 (1987), but Maria and Jarvis are in the car as well. (original timeline was maria dies when tony is 7, and then tony is left with his abusive father for ten years. but cw fucked all that up.)
> 
> I pulled two or so lines from This Is Us.
> 
> just to cover any confusion: Chapter One takes place July 16, 1990, Tony is 20 and Scott is 23.

Scott walks into the hospital waiting room, trying to stamp down his feelings of being a little miffed about being kicked out of the room. The chairs didn’t have any fluff left in the cushions, there was nail scratches on the ends of the chair arms, the lights were unbearably  _ there _ and reflecting off the floor. Scott couldn’t really be mad though, the doctors kicked out Jim too.

It was awkward sitting next to the man that was replacing him to his newborn daughter. Scott distracted himself from his dark feelings by focusing on either the rain on the window, having a mental raindrop race, some guy also in the waiting room who won’t stop bouncing his leg, the repetitive movements of the kid in the play area that’s pushing the blue car back and forth.

“I’m not going to keep you from her,” Jim says softly, trying not to disturb the other people in the waiting room, “I would never deprive a girl her father.”

Scott looks over at Jim, furrowing his eyebrows. Him and Jim have been at each other’s throats through the whole thing. Maggie being pregnant with his kid while dating Jim. Maggie didn’t know at the time, and Scott wanted to be there for her, but Jim got territorial. It was a complete mess, and Scott was dreading the day Cassie was born, because he feared it would be the first and  _ last _ day he held his baby girl.

“Thanks Jim,” Scott says, truthfully.

“Maybe…” Jim says, shrugging, “Maybe we can find a way to be friends and live in each others lives without causing scenes that stress out Maggie, and now probably Cassie. I don’t like fighting you. Just...I’m not really ready to be a step father and I-”

“I understand Jim, really. This whole time….it’s a mess. But we’ll figure it out.”

Jim grinned and was about to continue when a hollow  _ bang _ from behind them stopped him. They turned and looked at the receptionist desk. Some dude in a grease stained band shirt and in even more grease stained jeans, who had probably banged on the glass surrounding the desk.

“I need you to go back there, please, and get an update on my friend. Now, I have been sitting out here, relatively patiently-” the dude says, and Scott recognizes him as the guy that wouldn’t stop bouncing his leg earlier.

The nurse kindly and firmly interrupted him, “Sir, I can't-”

“No, no, I think it's fair, just walk back there,  _ please _ , and-and get an update on my friend,” the guy sounded desperate, banging his hand on the counter when he pleaded.

Jim, even off the clock, acting as higher authority, grabbed the guy’s arm and pulled him away from the desk.

“Kid, she obviously can’t-”

“Let me go!” The guy struggled a bit to pull his arm from Jim, “I need to know how my friend is!”

“Ma’am,” Jim said kindly to the nurse, “do you have  _ any _ information about his friend….” Jim turned to the guy.

“James Rhodes,” the guy said, a little shaken that Jim is helping him.

Jim turned back to the nurse, “James Rhodes?”

“No sir, I’m sorry but Doctor Strange is in emergency surgery right now,” the nurse said.

“Surgery?” the guy shouted worriedly, “Is-Is it Rhodey?”

“I’m sorry I can’t say-”

“ _ Please I need to know _ !”

“Kid,” Jim pulled so the guy looked at him. Scott could see tears in the guy’s eyes, and the dried tear tracks down his cheeks. “You aren’t going to get a different answer. Harassing the nurse isn’t going to help your friend.”

The guy seemed to calm down at that, and turned to the receptionist, “I’m sorry.”

The receptionist smiled and nodded, “it’s quite alright, thank you.”

Jim moved his hand from the guy’s arm to across his shoulders and steered him towards where Scott is. Jim put the guy between where Scott sat and where Jim sat down. Scott could smell the booze rolling off the guy, but he guessed Jim wasn’t giving him flack for it because something obviously happened that was bad and Jim didn’t want to add anything to it.

“So what happened to your friend, kid?” Jim asked.

“I’m not a kid, my name’s Tony” Tony said lowly, before sighing, wiping his face, “he-he was in a c-car accident.”

Jim’s eyebrows furrowed, “don’t they typically call friends after they know if the person is okay?”

“I’m his emergency contact out here. His mom and pops live in Philly.”

“Would you like me to call them for you?” Jim asked.

“I-I already did on the r-ride over here,” Tony said.

“From the smell of your breath, not driving I hope,” Jim’s  _ disappointment voice _ peaked through his worried posture.

“What are you, a cop?” Tony snarked.

“Yes,” Jim said, and Tony’s face fell from irritated to shameful, “Officer Jim Paxton. SFPD.”

“Oh…no, I got a taxi,” Tony said, and Jim hummed approvingly.

“What are you here for?” Tony asked. Jim gestured to Scott, causing him to turn to him. He has big brown eyes, like chocolate syrup that Scott could drown in.

“The birth of his kid,” Jim says.

“Congratulations,” Tony says, but not all that upbeat like all his friends were when Scott told them the news, and Scott couldn’t blame him. Friend in the hospital is rough.

“Really the birth of  _ our _ shared kid, he’s dating the mom, my ex,” Scott corrected.

“Oh,” Tony said, sounding a little confused.

“Long story,” Jim sorta laughingly sighed.

“I bet,” Tony smiles before it falls. Only so long they could distract him from his friend.

They sat in silence, and Scott went back to noticing how the cushions didn’t feel like cushions, and how the lights were unbearably bright. The kid disappeared, along with the mom, while they handled Tony.

“Last person I loved died in a car accident,” Tony blurted.

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Scott says, patting and rubbing Tony’s arm in comfort.

“Th-Three years ago. A family friend, he…he was more of a father to me than my own father…he died too, in the crash, with m-my mom. I…wish it j-just my father who…” Scott wrapped an arm about Tony as he cried.

“You’re not bad for thinking that,” Scott says, “and I’m sure your friend will be okay.”

“How can you be-“

“Anthony Stark?” Tony turned sharply and Scott and Jim followed his gaze to a nurse that walked out of the side door. Tony stood up.

“Th-That’s me,” Tony said and he made his way over to the nurse.

Again they say in silence, now with Tony missing. It wasn’t until later that night Scott realized it was  _ Tony Stark _ , when a news report played on the TV in Maggie’s hospital room.

  
_ “Tony Stark’s best friend, James Rhodes, was paralyze from the waist down in a brutal car accident earlier tonight,” _ Scott watched Christine report on WHiH News, “ _ Just three short years after Tony Stark lost his mother and father, Maria and Howard Stark, and butler Edward Jarvis in a fatal car crash. While speculation rises that it was a hit, law enforcement assure it was a simple faulty break.” _

**Author's Note:**

> Slow beginning. Chapter Two will be a Bit More.
> 
> Come talk to me about the fic on my tumblr!: [SheWhoWillRise](https://shewhowillrise.tumblr.com/)


End file.
